The present invention relates to a low profile smart card system, and especially to a combination of a smart card connector assembly and a printed circuit board (PCB), wherein the connector assembly is swamped in the PCB thereby obtaining a low profile above the PCB.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,255 and Taiwan Patent Application No. 85205015 disclose smart card connector assemblies of the field of technology that the present invention pertains to. Each prior art connector assembly has a card reader adapted to be soldered on a printed circuit board (PCB). The reader has a number of spring contacts with an arced contact portion and a straight tail portion. A card electrically connects with the connector assembly by having electric pads on the card pressing against and engaging with the arced contact portion of the connector assembly. The thickness of the reader of the thinnest connector of the prior art is 1.2 millimeters, and the thickness of a standard smart card is 2.0 millimeters; thus, the prior art should have a space with a minimum thickness of 3.2 millimeters above the PCB. However, the modern design (for example, a palm computer) may supply a limited space having a thickness of 1.5 millimeters above the PCB. Furthermore, the connector assemblies of the prior art do not provide reliable switches which can effectively determine the situation when the smart card is not correctly inserted into the smart card connector assembly Hence, an improved smart card connector assembly is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.